Once Royan shouted up at Nicholas through the rattling spray and the
thunder of the river all around them, 'Helicopter! Can you hear it?'
Half-deafened, he looked up at the lowering grey belly of the clouds
that hung at the level of the cliffs, and faintly made out the whistle
and flutter of the rotors.
'Above the cloud!' he shouted back, wiping the rain and the spray from
his eyes with the back of his hand.
'They will never spot us in this.'
The onset of the African night was sped upon them by the low cloud. In
the gathering darkness another hazard leaped upon them with no warning
at all. One instant they were running hard and clear down a smooth
stretch of the river, and the next the waters opened ahead of them and
they were hurled out into space. It seemed that they fell for ever,
although it was a drop of not more than thirty feet, before they hit the
bottom and found themselves floating in a tangle of men and boats in the
pool below the falls. Here the river was stalled for a moment, revolving
upon itself while it gathered its strength for the next mad charge down
the gorge.
One of the Avons had capsized and was floating belly up - even its
highly stable hull had not been able to weather the down the falls,
The crews of the other ro boats gathered themselves and then paddled
across to drag the survivors from the water and to salvage the oars and
other floating equipment. It took the combined efforts of all of them to
right the overturned Avon, and then it was almost completely dark by the
time they had it back on even keel, 'Count the crates!' Nicholas
ordered. 'How many have we lost?'
He could hardly credit his good fortune when Sapper shouted back,
'Eleven still on board. All present and correct.' The cargo nets were
holding well. But all of them, men and women, were exhausted and soaked
through and shivering with the cold., Any attempt to go on in darkness
would be suicidal. Nicholas looked across at Mek in the nearest boat and
shook his head.
'There is a bit of slack water in the angle of the cliff.' Mek pointed
towards the tail of the pool. 'We might be able to find moorings for the
night.'
him-
There was a stunted but tough little tree growing out of the vertical
fissure in the rock, and they used this as a bollard and made a line
fast to it. Then they lashed all the Avons together in a line down the
cliff and settled in for the night. There was no chance of hot food or
drink, and they had to make do with some cold tinned rations eaten off
the blade of a bayonet, and a few chunks of soggy injera bread.
Mek scrambled over from his own boat and huddled down close beside
Nicholas with one arm over his shoulder and his lips close to his ear.
'I have made a roll call. Another man missing when we went over the
falls. We won't find him now.'
'I am not doing too well,' Nicholas admitted. 'Perhaps you should lead
tomorrow.'
'Not your fault.' Mek squeezed his shoulders. 'Nobody could have done
better. It was this last waterfall-' he broke off and they listened to
